Everyone is Switching to Mac!

June 2009

June 30, 2009

By now you probably know that Mozilla has released Firefox 3.5 with a slew of new features and enhancements. But we're sure that Firefox-slinging 1Password users are all wondering the same question: is it safe to update yet?

Fortunately, the answer is yes! We tested 1Password with Firefox 3.5 through the beta period and didn't run into any issues. Just to be on the safe side, you should probably update 1Password to the latest 2.9.21 version that we released yesterday. That said, if you run into any issues, be sure to let us know in our 1Password support forum or here on the blog.

June 26, 2009

Maybe you're a developer helping Apple put some final spit and polish on Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, the forthcoming major update that's due by September this year. Or maybe you're an ahem enthusiastic user who just has to peek at what Apple has behind the curtain. Either way, you are now frantically looking for a way to continue living in a pre-release Snow Leopard world without 1Password working with Safari.

That's right, while our developer ninjas typically slice through browser updates with startlingly silent speed, we tend to wait for Apple to publicly ship its major OS updates before springing into action. A lot can change during the beta period of an OS, and constantly keeping up with those changes can create a lot of busywork—work that takes us away from supporting our customers and making 1Password even more awesome.

However, as it turns out, 1Password 2.9.19 should work fairly well on Snow Leopard. Our plug-in for most browsers should also work, except for Safari. To get 1Password running in Safari on Snow Leopard, you can perform two simple steps from this post in our forums, courtesy of 1Password developer Chad Seldomridge. To quote:

Configure Safari to run in 32-bit mode (Use Get Info in Finder and enable the 32-bit mode under the General section).

Edit the 1Password.app/Contents/Resources/SupportedBrowsers.plist file and set the Safari.MaxBundleVersion value to 6532 (Update: value changed from 6531 to 6532 for latest Snow Leopard build 10A402a)

That should make 1Password happy in Safari on Snow Leopard, but remember: this is not an official statement of support. 1Password is still completely unsupported on Snow Leopard, so if you need help, swing on by the aforelinked thread to post feedback and ask questions.

Agile Web Solutions' own Chief Evangelist, Carl Slawinski, was interviewed recently by TechNewsWorld. The article covers the original inspiration behind 1Password, and Carl comments on a number of issues ranging from misinformation about the Mac platform, the challenges of developing for the iPhone, and more!

June 25, 2009

Update: We released 1Password touch and 1Password touch Pro 2.2 in early August with some new features, so we have updated this chart accordingly. 1Password touch Pro's price has also increased to $7.99 on its journey towards its eventual price of $14.99.

Original post:

Earlier this week we explained why 1Password touch Pro is not yet so different from its little brother, and why we will be offering it at a heavily discounted sale price for a while. But if you're wondering which upcoming features actually put the "Pro" in 1Password touch Pro, this is the post for you.

Below is a chart which details the current features that separate 1Password touch Pro from the standard version. More importantly, it lists some of the big new features that are coming soon to the Pro version:

Features on the way include Favorites for easy access to frequently used items, Folders to better organize your 1Password information, and wireless sync via MobileMe and other WebDAV services. But those are just the big ones that the developers will let me talk about publicly—they have plenty of other exciting features in store for 1Password touch Pro.

If 1Password touch is your weapon of choice, don't fret. It will continue to get other new features and compatibility upgrades.

We know that, right now, the feature differences between 1Password touch and Pro are not quite where they should be. This is partly why 1Password touch Pro, at the time of this writing, is heavily discounted at $5.99 from its eventual retail price. For those who are on the decision fence between these two version, we hope this chart helps you make your choice.

June 22, 2009

Alright, we'll admit it: 1Password touch and our new 1Password touch Pro are not the best candidates for a round of "One of These Things is Not Like The Other." Sure, we just introduced the Pro version with Quick Copy and Paste and a "Look up in 1Password" Safari bookmarklet (get it here). But besides those features, they're pretty much the same.

So what gives? Why—after a year of giving 1Password touch away for free—did we start charging for it a week before WWDC, then introduce a separate Pro version that, well, isn't quite Pro yet? The answer is: it's complicated.

1Password touch

First, the new 1Password touch (1Pt) price. Believe it or not, we've been giving this fine little password and identity manager away for free since we launched it almost a year ago. We hoped that, at least for some, it would be a gateway drug to get people interested in 1Password on the Mac.

1Pt became quite popular, whether people were buying 1Password for the Mac or not (Industry ProTip: Not all iPhone and iPod touch owners are Mac users). So popular, in fact, that it now accounts for the lion's share of our support load. Toss in the fact that the App Store still doesn't allow developers to charge so much as a nickel for upgrades or even updates, and we quickly found ourselves with a dead-end business model resembling that of most web 2.0 companies.

Ultimately, we decided that we had to start charging for 1Password touch, so we flipped the switch to $4.99 just a week before the new iPhone was announced.

1Password touch Pro

At the same time, we were already working on 1Password touch Pro (1Pt Pro) which, as the Pro with a capital "P" might suggest, is designed to offer more powerful features that some of our users have asked for. Features like more organization with folders and favorites, syncing over-the-air with MobileMe and other WebDAV services, and much more are all in store for the Pro version.

The reason that we launched Pro without most of its pro-level features is that a crucial upgrade to our regular version got stuck in Apple's App Store review process. We submitted it two and a half weeks before WWDC, but like many other App Store horror stories, we hadn't heard a word from Apple (in fact, it just went live last night around 3am, over 3 weeks after submission). The 1Pt update fixed some issues with our new Wi-Fi Sync engine, about which customers had a number of questions and bug reports. We were starting to get nervous about having a 3.0-ready app for the launch last week, something Apple was encouraging of all developers. Instead of submitting another update to the regular version and risk knocking ourselves to the back of the review line, we decided to try a different approach.

We decided to double our chance at getting a 3.0-ready app into the store. We stripped most of the unfinished features out of 1Pt Pro and submitted it as our iPhone-OS-3.0-ready app (in fact, it requires 3.0; 1Pt Pro will not work on any previous iPhone OS). This gave us a second shot at being ready for OS 3.0, and the (admittedly non-ideal) situation offered an opportunity to launch 1Pt Pro at a rock-bottom introductory price of $5.99. Sure, not everyone needs 1Password touch Pro. But those that do, or think they might, can now get it for 60% off of its eventual retail price and be ready for when the real features start arriving. Again, Apple doesn't allow App Store developers to charge for upgrades or updates, and it shows no signs of changing this policy. The price you pay now for either 1Pt or 1Pt Pro is all you pay. As far as our plans are concerned right now, when 1Pt Pro goes back to a regular price of $14.99, or even when we release 1Pt Pro 3.0, you won't have to pay another dime.

Lesson Learned

After all the feedback here on the blog and in our forums, it's clear now where we made our mistake. We rushed to get ready for 3.0, but we didn't explain to you—the customers without which we would not have jobs—what was going on. Things can get crazy around the intersection of an annual trade show and a massive platform update, and we apologize for getting swept up in the storm. We aren't a company who believes in overcharging and under-delivering for our customers, and we hope the past three years and 100+ free updates and upgrades to 1Password on the Mac will help prove that (not to mention 1Password touch being free for almost a year). The stripped down, highly discounted Pro edition is a temporary solution. In the near future we will submit 1Password touch 2.2, a free upgrade that fully supports iPhone OS 3.0 and our Quick Copy and Paste feature. Soon, 1Pt Pro will begin filling its shoes with the more powerful features you've been asking for.

We hope this post clears up the situation around 1Pt and 1Pt Pro, but as always, we more than welcome your feedback and questions. Thanks for being Agile Web Solutions customers. We are both proud and grateful to serve you all.

June 17, 2009

Today is iPhone OS 3.0 day, and we had to get in on the fun with a new version of 1Password touch for iPhone and iPod touch. The "standard" version will continue to sell for $4.99 in the App Store, and it is now iPhone OS 3.0 compatible.

But 1Password touch Pro 2.1 hops on the iPhone OS 3.0 train in a big way by gaining new features like Copy & Paste and an all-new bookmarklet for Safari (click here to get it). We also have some big features planned for it—such as wireless WebDAV sync—so to celebrate, it's on sale from its regular price for just $5.99. Get it while it's hot, folks.

Both versions have gained a backup feature that allows users with a modern browser to securely back up and restore their 1Password touch information. This feature works regardless of whether you use 1Password on the Mac, or even a Mac at all. Windows and Linux users, this one is especially for you.

To show off the new features in 1Pt Pro 2.1, as well as the backup feature of both versions, we made y'all a short screencast. It clocks in at less than two minutes, so give it a whirl, check out our documentation, comment here on the blog, or check out our forums if you need more information or just want to say hi.

June 10, 2009

Later this year, Agile Web Solutions will release 1Password 3, our most delicious upgrade ever, featuring a gorgeously redesigned UI, custom Wallet Items, and much, much more. Brimming with anticipation, customers have been e-mailing, tweeting, and occasionally tackling us on the street (we love you guys too!) to find out how upgrades will work and who will be eligible for a free 1Password 3 license.

We sent a newsletter explaining the license upgrade terms to our customers a few months ago. Now that we're speaking a little more publicly about the new version, the matter bears repeating here on the blog.

In a nutshell: Anyone who has purchased a 1Password 2.x license after March 1, 2009 will get a free upgrade to 1Password 3.0. Yes, we realize that such a wide-open upgrade window could be grounds to have ourselves committed. But the bosses won't budge on this, and I need to keep my job so I'm going to stop bugging them to make it smaller. Proud new owners of recently purchased 1Password 2.x licenses are simply going to have to make due with a free upgrade to 1Password 3. Dem's the cards.

Keep in mind, however, that 1Password 2 supports Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and 10.5 Leopard. When the new 1Password 3 hotness arrives, it will only run on 10.5 Leopard and 10.6 Snow Leopard. In other words, we're dropping Tiger support in the new version.

As far as an upgrade price for pre-March customers, we haven't worked one out yet. As soon as we do, you'll certainly hear about it here and on Twitter.

If you want to stay on top of what's new and upcoming at Agile Web Solutions, be sure to bookmark this blog or subscribe to it in your favorite newsreader. You can also sign up for our newsletter at the top of the sidebar. Of course, we promise your address will not be used for selling you get-rich schemes or any such nonsense. Just pure, legitimate, Agile Web Solutions nonsense.

June 08, 2009

Well that didn't take long: we released a beta on Monday afternoon to support Apple's officially shipping version of Safari 4. I step away to eat dinner, take the dogs to the park, and play some Left 4 Dead, and suddenly I see our developer ninjas have finished polishing 1Password 2.9.19.

The headlining feature of our new version (available via the built-in Check for Updates feature) is, of course, support for Safari 4 on Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and 10.5 Leopard (sorry, 10.6 Snow Leopard is still in the works). But that's not all: we managed to add better rules for matching domains like k12.sc.us, as well as drag-and-drop Dock icon support for importing .appshelf files.

For users of Camino nightly builds, we had to disable support to avoid some crashes. Sorry guys.

Lastly, a tip just in case the 1Password button disappears from Safari 4's toolbar after upgrading 1Password. We've heard a couple rare reports of this happening, but the fix is easy: quit Safari, then open 1Password and go to the Preferences > Browsers section. Uncheck Safari, then check it again. Restart Safari and the 1Password button should return.

It seems like it was barely a week ago that 1Password is both a "Most Popular" and "Featured Download" at Apple's own site. Oh wait, it was only a week ago!

But it looks like Apple is also a fan of 1Password touch for the iPhone and iPod touch! In Apple's new iPhone 3GS Guided Tour, you can see 1Password is installed on the demo phone at roughly the 1:50 mark. As a bonus: the advantageous use of the number 1 in our software's name means that we appear as the first user-installed application on Apple's iPhone 3GS.

Two nods from Apple for 1Password in about as many weeks! Be still our beating hearts.